Photography For Bloggers with Emily Quinton

I've always been a keen photographer taking pictures whenever the opportunity arises and as a designer always trying to be creative with angles (often a little too much!), effects and a little bit obsessed with the macro setting! Despite having a good eye for things I've never really been 100% happy with the pictures I take and always wanted to learn how to take better photos, especially beautiful ones to use on my blog. Then I came across the delightful photographer and blogger Emily Quinton (of The Start Up Wife)  via Holly Becker's Blogging Your Way Course and when she announced she was going to be teaching a photography workshop for bloggers, I think I was one of the first to sign up! 

So, a week last Saturday, my friend Mel and I, some of my fellow London Bloggers (Geraldine, Kate, Jane & Kirsty) and a bunch of other lovely creative ladies took to the back streets of trendy Shoreditch for a full on session with Emily and our cameras. As you can imagine with Emily's crafty and blogging background we were all greeted with gorgeous little goodie bags filled with stickers, pencils and Moleskin notebooks. 

We learnt all about composition (the 'rule of thirds'), how to get the best lighting, including taking pictures in 'the golden hour',  which type of lenses to use and some very good tips on how to achieve great quality photos, even on an iPhone and which apps to do it with! Then to finish off the day we had a lesson on how to save, edit and use our photos to their best potential on our blogs and with other social media.

Below are some of the best images I took during the day. Let me now what you think! Which is your favourite?

All in all was a day packed full of great advice, hands on practise and lots of fun. Emily is teaching the workshop again in September (see the link above) and I highly recommend it if you are a blogger and looking to improve your photography skills or if you want to take photos of products for a website. Even if you aren't a blogger it is still a great day and you will come away having learnt so many key skills to put to use in your photography. It's not a course to teach you how to use your camera mind you and it can be taken with any camera or camera phone. I was lucky enough to borrow a friends digital SLR camera for the day which has now very kindly been donated to me so I can get in some much needed practise and have fun taking lots of beautiful photos. Thank you! And thank you to Emily for being such a star and a great teacher. 

If you'd like to check out some of the other girls posts you can do here. Me Plus Molly, Papermash, For Bella and Will